Deni Rahman
Deni Rahman was born in 1979 in the city of Jakarta. Upon his graduation from the Department of Fine Arts (Printmaking), Indonesia Institute of Arts (ISI), Yogyakarta, he started to work on the development of printmaking. He is currently a member of Grafis Minggiran and a lecturer in the Fine Arts Faculty of Institut Seni Indonesia Surakata (Institute of Arts Indonesia, Solo).
In his work Hate Speech Triggers Fascism on the Pentagonal Icositetrahedron, Rahman takes the well-known figure of Habib Rizieq as a starting point. Habib Rizieq is the founder and leader of the movement Front Pembela Islam (‘Islamic Defense Front’), and has a great political influence. He is known to create controversy and his speeches always provoke negative comments from various sides. Rizieq has been sued for some of his actions for being contrary to the ideology of ‘Pancasila’ (the foundational philosophy of the Indonesian state). His actions vary from religious harassment to critiquing the image of the hammer and sickle on Indonesia’s new currency, and the spread of pornographic content.
In Hate Speech Triggers Fascism, Deni Rahman depicts Habib Rizieq’s case. He wants to stress that hostility or hatred can make people justify aggressive actions to uphold what they think is right, while sometimes imposing this view on other people’s lives.
Exhibitions
